Dirty Dick Pound

Richard Pound is at it once again. Speaking to a business conference in B.C. on Monday January 10, 2010, Richard Pound called figure skating a "nightmare sport" and said figure skaters can't be sure that their sport is immune from judging scandals.

"I don't see much improvement," Pound told the Vancouver Sun, "You don't know what's going through (the judges') minds. It's so corrupt that the judging is anonymous."

While it isn't surprising that Pound would make another ridiculous comment without any real evidence before him, what has become tiresome is Pound's manner for seeking out publicity. Has anyone noticed that Pound reserves his comments until the press actually cares about amateur sports so his image can make front page headlines across the country.

Think about it. In early 2004 - a few short months before the onset of the Athens Games and at the height of Lance Armstrong's popularity here in North America Pound remarked that "the public knows that riders in the Tour de France are doping". Just before the cauldron was lit at the 2004 Games in Athens Pound accused USA Track of being "largely responsible" for doping. In January of 2006 - a few short weeks before the onset of the Olympic Games Pound noted that a third of NHL hockey players were on performance enhacing drugs. And in 2008, on the second day of competition at the Beijing Games when asked about China's human rights record Pound remarked that "Canada was a land of savages".

However, while Pound sits and passes out accusations he should look at himself first. In an article written by Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post she notes the following, "Pound was vice president of the IOC and a representative of the Canadian delegation in 1988 when his countryman, Ben Johnson, was stripped of his gold medal for testing positive for steroid use. Pound was a public defender of Johnson's, arguing that he was essentially innocent, had been manipulated into taking an illegal drug unwittingly. "I'm certain he didn't know," Pound said. "I don't think he has the faintest idea what it's all about." He also said that Johnson had a "guilty body" but not the guilty intent that would have convicted him in a court of law. Johnson later confessed he had used steroids since 1981."

Some time thereafter, Pound became known as an outspoken critic of corruption within the IOC, while at the same time supporting the leadership of IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.


Later as President of the World Anti Doping Agency Pound's agency was a benefector of his board and the Canadian tax-payer. In 2002, Hon Paul Devillers, the then Minister of Sport to Paul Martin, sat as a member on the board of directors of the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA). As a board member with WADA, Devillers was quoted as saying that anti-doping in sport was part of his mandate. In that year, Sport Canada approved a $1.5 million grant to the World Anti Doping Agency to move their head office to Montreal, Quebec - Pound's home town at the time. This was in addition to $315,000 in operation funding that very same year.






Perhaps it is time that Pound kept his mouth shut and he focused on cleaning up his own act.
Just a thought.